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smell a rat

 - 9 dictionary results
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rat

  [rat] noun, interjection, verb, rat⋅ted, rat⋅ting.
Use smell a rat in a Sentence
–noun
1. any of several long-tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger.
2. any of various similar or related animals.
3. Slang. a scoundrel.
4. Slang.
a. a person who abandons or betrays his or her party or associates, esp. in a time of trouble.
b. an informer.
c. a scab laborer.
5. Slang. a person who frequents a specified place: a mall rat; gym rats.
6. a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hair styles to give the appearance of greater thickness.
–interjection
7. rats, Slang. (an exclamation of disappointment, disgust, or disbelief.)
–verb (used without object)
8. Slang.
a. to desert one's party or associates, esp. in a time of trouble.
b. to turn informer; squeal: He ratted on the gang, and the police arrested them.
c. to work as a scab.
9. to hunt or catch rats.
–verb (used with object)
10. to dress (the hair) with or as if with a rat.
—Idiom
11. smell a rat, to suspect or surmise treachery; have suspicion: After noting several discrepancies in his client's story, the attorney began to smell a rat.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME rat(t)e, OE ræt; c. D rat, G Ratz, Ratte

Related forms:
ratlike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To smell a rat
Rodent Odor
America's #1 Mouse Killer! Bait vs. Traps? Solve Your Problem w/ d-CON®
www.d-CONproducts.com
Glade® Air Fresheners
Keep Your Rooms Smelling Fresh With Glade® Fragrances
www.Glade.com
smell   (směl)   
v.   smelled or smelt (smělt), smell·ing, smells

v.   tr.

  1. To perceive the scent of (something) by means of the olfactory nerves.

  2. To sense the presence of by or as if by the olfactory nerves; detect or discover: We smelled trouble ahead. The committee tried to smell out corruption in law enforcement.

v.   intr.

  1. To use the sense of smell; perceive the scent of something.

  2. To have or emit an odor: "The breeze smelled exactly like Vouvray—flowery, with a hint of mothballs underneath" (Anne Tyler).

  3. To be suggestive; have a touch of something: a cave that smells of terror.

  4. To have or emit an unpleasant odor; stink: This closet smells.

  5. To appear to be dishonest; suggest evil or corruption.

n.  

  1. The sense by which odors are perceived; the olfactory sense.

  2. That quality of something that may be perceived by the olfactory sense.

  3. The act or an instance of smelling.

  4. A distinctive enveloping or characterizing quality; an aura or trace: the smell of success.


[Middle English smellen.]
Synonyms: These nouns denote a quality that can be perceived by the olfactory sense: the smell of gas; the aroma of frying onions; hospital odors; the scent of pine needles.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

smell a rat

To sense foul play: “They claim they will honor the terms of the contract, but I smell a rat.”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
rat (on (so))

  1. in.
    to inform (on someone). : Bill said he was going to rat on that punk.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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smell a rat

  1. tv.
    to suspect that something is wrong. : Keep everything normal. I don't want her to smell a rat. She has never had a surprise party before.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

rat 
O.E. ræt. Similar words in Celtic (Gael. radan), Romance (It. ratto, Sp. rata, Fr. rat) and Gmc. (M.L.G. rotte, Ger. ratte) languages, but connection is uncertain and origin unknown. Perhaps from V.L. *rattus, but Weekley thinks this is of Gmc. origin, "the animal having come from the East with the race-migrations" and the word passing thence to the Romanic languages. American Heritage and Tucker connect O.E. ræt to L. rodere and thus PIE *red- "to scrape, scratch, gnaw," source of rodent (q.v.). Klein says there is no connection and suggests a possible cognate in Gk. rhine "file, rasp." Weekley connects them with a question mark and Barnhart writes, "the relationship to each other of the Germanic, Romance, and Celtic words for rat is uncertain." OED says "probable" the rat word spread from Germanic to Romance, but takes no position on ultimate origin. M.E. common form was ratton, from augmented O.Fr. form raton. Sense of "one who abandons his associates" (1629) is from belief that rats leave a ship about to sink or a house about to fall and led to meaning "traitor, informant" (1902; verb 1910). Interjection rats is Amer.Eng., 1886. To smell a rat is c.1550. Rat-race "competitive struggle" is 1939. Ratsbane (1523) is arsenic. Rat fink is teen slang from 1963. Rathole in fig. sense of "nasty, messy place" first attested 1812. _____-rat, "person who frequents _____" (in earliest ref. dock-rat) is from 1864. Rat-pack "juvenile gang" is from 1951.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: rat
Pronunciation: 'rat
Function: noun
: any of the numerous rodents (family Muridae) of Rattus and related genera that differ from themurid mice by their usually considerably larger size and by features of the teeth and other structures and that include forms (as the brown rat, the black rat, and the roof rat) which live in and abouthuman habitations and in ships, have become naturalized by commerce in most parts of the world, and are destructive pests consuming or destroying vast quantities of food and other goods and acting asvectors of various diseases (as bubonic plague)
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

rat (rāt)
n.
Any of various long-tailed rodents of the genus Rattus and related genera, including certain strains used in scientific research and certain species that are vectors for various diseases.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Idioms & Phrases

smell a rat

Suspect something is wrong, especially a betrayal of some kind. For example, When I didn't hear any more from my prospective employer, I began to smell a rat. This expression alludes to a cat sniffing out a rat. [c. 1550]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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